So today I was thinking about one of my “better” windshield moments. In the spring of 2013, I spent three weeks traveling across the country with the Omega Tour. The Omega tour was a true windshield moment that I had in the fall of 2012. I was considering an email forwarded to me from a customer expressing his dissatisfaction with the Sage Summit that he had just attended, and he suggested that Sage should create a Sage Pro ERP user group. I had also just learned that Sage was planning to retire Sage Pro ERP in the spring of 2014.

So the result was that I thought that if we organized resellers across the county with the help of Sage to help end users move to a new platform it would be to everyone’s benefit. We could do a roadshow, taking the message directly to the users.

We spend six months having weekly meetings every Friday afternoon organizing the event. At least a dozen competitors getting together with their primary vendor working to deliver a common message. Dealing with competitors and the publisher’s politics often took a drink before the call, but it all worked out.

The result was a successful series of events where we were able to help a number of customers and resellers plan for the transition. All born from my windshield drive one morning in the fall of 2012.

The effort is still paying results. Yesterday I had an initial office meeting with a new prospect. His current software solution has been discontinued, and even though he has paid for support faithfully for the past 12 years, the publisher is not giving him a discount or incentive to move to the current platform. Because of their policy, he has made a decision to discontinue the relationship with the publisher. Once you lose someone’s trust, it’s hard to get it back.

Sage Software can be daunting to work with as a reseller, but as Winston Churchill said “democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms”. The company offered conversion utilities, financial discounts, and was willing to send a representative across the county to explain their plan directly to end users.

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http://www.wacinc.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2013/07/wacinc1.png00Kari-Annhttp://www.wacinc.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2013/07/wacinc1.pngKari-Ann2015-08-12 21:19:422015-08-12 21:33:26Best Windshield Moment Yet... but more to come

Welcome to the Windshield Blog-

Some people have their best ideas in the shower. I have mine while driving. (Which is lucky for the reader, since a picture of me in the shower would be pretty scary.) Hence, the Windshield Blog.
But it's not just the view. It’s also the timing and the music. On the way to the office with a cup of coffee and iTunes I have the most productive 30 minutes of the day. Sometimes. And sometimes it's the most insane. The reader can be the judge.